


Best Laid Plans

by Selah



Series: Once in a Million [1]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Jpop, Jrock, Kpop - Fandom, SID (band), Zepp Tour 2007
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic, bandman antics, genre crossover fic, multiband fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 17:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3658740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selah/pseuds/Selah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They said Sapporo was always a good idea, especially this time of year</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

> In 2007 there was a multiband event touring the various Zepp venues, with a rotating cast of bands, though iirc SID and jealkb did all the shows. DBSK really was on the ticket for the Sapporo stop, though everything else about this story is a product of my own imagination. Previously released on 30emotions@LJ with the prompt disappointment and a different psuedonym.

They'd been invited - _invited_ \- to join the Zepp tour. Just the one night, but as the saying went, anything could happen in one night. In fact, Changmin intended to see to it that it did. An intimate setting with a small capacity and fans close to the stage, what was not to love? True, not all the fans would be there to see _them_ , but that didn't mean they couldn't put on a great show. Maybe they would win some new fans in the process, even. Anything was possible, right?

*~*~*

Changmin made what was probably one of the quicker costume changes of his life, long legs climbing the stairs two at a time so he could watch the last act of the night from the balcony with the spotlights. He loved music, loved watching the way other artists reacted to and interacted with the audience, particularly in a setting like this one. So intimate compared to the massive arenas in which DBSK had been performing lately. Watching the way Mao worked the audience, speaking to the fans as if they were all his honeys, his close friends ... it was fun. Amusing and maybe even a little bit inspiring.

“Hey you,” Junsu murmured, tugging at his ponytail. “We were wondering where you'd gone to in such a hurry.”

Changmin waved off his friend; he was intent on something more interesting than Junsu. Mao was chatting about some sort of pudding (he thought) that he'd received from one of his fans, but Changmin wasn't really paying attention to the singer, either, because the bassist had unbuttoned his shirt before the last song and now he was very obviously relishing a cold bottle of water. Aki's eyes closed and Changmin's eyes widened as he watched the bassist tilt his head back even further, lifting the bottle to pour the rest of the water over his head. From the shrill squeeing below, Mao had lost a sizable portion of his audience to his bassist's display. Changmin couldn't blame them, watching rivulets of water trace the muscles of Aki's chest, drip from black and blond hair.

“Close your mouth and swallow, Minnie,” Junsu teased in his ear. Changmin could feel himself blushing as he quickly stepped back from the rail (as if Aki - or anyone else - could possibly have seen him), licking suddenly dry lips.

“I just ... I have an appreciation for the male form, that's all,” he mumbled.

“You were panting like a bitch in heat.”

“I was not!” he hissed, grateful when SID started their next song. He startled at the feel of arms circling around his waist, but he could immediately tell the chin resting on his shoulder didn't belong to Junsu. Whether that was a good thing or not, he wasn't so certain.

“Think you can play nice with everyone?” Jaejoong murmured, gently teasing. “Chaos-sshi and Hideki-sshi are insisting that everyone go out for drinks with them after the show. And they seem to be winning over Manager-sshi to the idea.”

“Out for drinks? Like out to a bar? Jae-hyung, you know....”

“Karaoke. Chaos-sshi says he knows the perfect place. No bitter juice this time, I promise,” Jaejoong interrupted, and Changmin could hear the laughter in the other man's voice. Karaoke would be fun, he couldn't remember when they'd last had a night out like that. Too busy working. And if they had an unfair advantage over the rock bands, well, that wasn't their fault, since it was apparently Chaos's idea. Assuming, of course, that the keyboardist in question could actually talk their manager into allowing this. Well, stranger things had happened....

As soon as SID left the stage, Jaejoong was tugging him towards the stairs. As if there was some big hurry. As if anyone would be going anywhere until at least half an hour later. But there was no sense in trying to point out these things to Jaejoong and it wasn't like being dragged around by his hyung was some sort of hardship. Yunho was waiting for them when they got back to their dressing room.

“Chaos-sshi said SID will be staying here for another hour to make sure all their equipment gets packed up properly for the next stop on the tour so he's going on ahead with more or less everyone else. Hideki-sshi is staying until the SID crew is done but Chaos-sshi already gave me directions to the karaoke bar, so it's not like we have to wait. Yoochun's already gone ahead, even.”

“Manager-sshi's really okay with this?” Junsu asked, echoing the surprise Changmin was sure they all felt.

“Yeah. Well, as long as we don't stay out all night, since we have a train to catch pretty early in the morning. But ... figure we can sleep on the train if it comes to that, ne?”

“Translation, we're probably going to stay out all night anyway and use the closing of the subways as an excuse?” Jaejoong teased, unlatching from Changmin to poke at Yunho.

“Well ... I guess we'll see how things go?” Yunho said as he fended off Jaejoong's mock attack.

“Yeah, we're going out with a bunch of _old_ people,” Junsu added, grinning. “They'll probably be boring and want to sing folk songs or something ridiculous like that. If we even make it to midnight –.”

“Midnight? You really think Minnie can last that long? Big group doing karaoke usually means a lot of time spent sitting on your ass while everybody else takes turns,” Jaejoong said, turning away from Yunho to smirk at Changmin again. He rolled his eyes - it wasn't like this was any sort of _new_ teasing - but before he could say anything in his defense, Junsu was offering his own rebuttal. Of sorts.

“True, but if he can sleep through all that, no reason to cut our own night short, right? Assuming we find enough in common with the oldtimers to hang out for longer than twenty minutes.”

“With your sense of humor, you'll fit right in, duckbutt,” Changmin shot back.

“I do not have a duck butt!”

“Well ... you _do_ kinda waddle like a duck sometimes,” Jaejoong added with feigned seriousness.

“Appa! Tell them I do not have a duck butt!”

“I have a hundred times already and it hasn't changed anything,” Yunho replied, faking a sigh of world-weary proportions. “Stop worrying about the size of your butt and let's go already. We're wasting time here.”

“Eh? Oh! Oh, hey, you're right. They might start passing out for the night if we don't get to that bar pretty soon,” Junsu said, unholy glee returning to his eyes, opening the door behind him without so much as even a backwards glance. “They've probably only got an hour left in them at the most, we wouldn't want to miss it!”

“Still hanging around _here_ of all places? I'd think four young studs would have something better to do with their night even if they weren't interested in Haderu-kun's invitation.”

Changmin felt himself blushing at getting caught saying such unkind things about their elders ... and then his cheeks burned even more when he realized the chances of Mao actually knowing any Korean were fairly remote and the singer likely never would have even paused to suspect if not for Changmin's own reaction. Maybe he would just assume it was because of his comment?

“This one,” and it was seemingly Yunho's turn to tug at Changmin's hair, “was in such a hurry to not miss anything after our set that he forgot to grab things like his wallet.”

Blinking, Changmin checked his pockets only to have Yunho tap his nose with said wallet. Dammit. Now he looked like an idiot _and_ an overeager fanboy at the same time.

“We'll get out of your hair now,” Yunho said, offering Mao a polite bow, and it briefly occurred to Changmin to wonder if his friend even knew who Mao was or if he'd just assumed he was staff of some sort. Not that he supposed it really mattered; if Yunho didn't know who he was, he'd find out soon enough. Hopefully by the time Mao and the others joined the karaoke party, Changmin wouldn't be feeling quite so much like his pride was in tatters.

~*~*~

The private karaoke room Chaos and Hideki had arranged for the group of them was bigger than some Tokyo apartments Changmin had seen. Then again, considering they were needing room for twenty or so people....

He must have fallen asleep because one moment he was trying not to hear a simply godawful rendition of he wasn't even sure what and the next he was being gently shaken awake by a smiling Yuuya. Laugh lines crinkled slightly around the drummer's eyes (he wasn't that old, dammit!) and he was offering Changmin a drink of some sort. He accepted it, but not without some concern for what might be in it.

“Just Coke, no rum or anything else,” the other reassured. “Kinda early for you to be passing out on us, kiddo.”

“I'm not a kid,” he grumbled, immediately feeling guilty when he saw the way Yuuya backed away from the very suggestion. He was being an overly sensitive idiot. Again. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” Yuuya said, shooting him a bright grin. “But you have to tell me how you managed to sleep through all their racket.”

“Ah, well, um ... honed special ability?” he replied, shrugging. “Sometimes it gets hard to get any real sleep, so I've kinda had to learn how to grab what sleep I can whenever I can.”

“Mm, I can certainly understand that. Touring can be hell like that.”

“Even when we're not touring. Always something, you know? Appearances, events ... and then actually learning the music and the dance routines. Plus they expect us to be actors and do regular radio spots and just going, going, going.”

Yuuya was just about to say something when they were interrupted by ... someone Changmin couldn't recall a name for sprawling across Yuuya's lap to croon some sort of crude love song at the drummer. Amused, Changmin pulled back against the back of the bench on which he was sitting, careful to protect his glass of soda from any accidental spillage. Someone eventually pried the drunken man from Yuuya's lap, but by then the drummer had been completely distracted away from their conversation, chatting with someone who may have been the semi-infamous Chaos. Well, whatever. The room had even more people in it now than it had before and if all else failed, he could always take Yunho back to their hotel. Their leader was looking a bit wilted, ready for sleep, unlike the other three. After all of Junsu's little comments about old men not being able to party, he was a little surprised that any of them, let alone all five of them, where still here. But with all the laughter in the air, maybe he shouldn't have been. That said, falling asleep had also clearly worked against him; everyone else was happily in conversational groups - except for Yoochun who was now singing a drunken duet with Hideki - and Changmin felt ... left out of the action. Maybe it would be better to go back to the hotel, get some sleep while he had the chance. As busy and boisterous as the room was, he doubted anyone would notice him slipping away to freedom. And while he realized he should probably be taking advantage of the night of relative freedom, sleep was important, too.

It was too easy, slipping out of the room while his friends were busy laughing over Yoochun completely flubbing a lyric to one of their own songs. He almost felt guilty about it, really, and was actually standing in the hall like an idiot, debating going back to tell _someone_ he was leaving, when arms stole around his waist.

“Leaving so soon?”

Changmin twitched at the sudden invasion of his personal space, blushing immediately afterwards. “Mao-san....”

“Or have I misinterpreted things and you were just looking for the restroom?”

“I, um, well ... it's been a long day, so I thought I'd go back to the hotel and get some sleep.” It all sounded so reasonable, aside from the part where he'd told no one his plans. That had, in fact, been entirely irresponsible. Well, he could always send an e-mail to Yunho's phone. Or maybe Junsu's would be better.

“Ah, well, I suppose it has at that,” Mao agreed and the arms dropped from Changmin's waist. That was all? Well, of course it would be. He doubted Mao even knew his name, just that he had been backstage and part of the show.

“Take care getting back to the hotel. Never know what sorts might be out and about this time of night.”

Changmin turned and offered the other singer a smile and polite bow. He appreciated the image of concern, even if that was all it was, a faked image. That was how things worked in this country after all - image was everything. He was nothing to Mao, not even a familiar face. A quick text message to Junsu and he washed his hands of the evening.


End file.
